THE HOTTEST RESTAURANTS IN MANHATTAN RIGHT NOW, JUNE 2015

Eater editors get asked one question more than any other: Where should I eat right now? NYC dining obsessives want to know what's new, what's hot, and what Danny Bowien is up to these days. So here you have it, a guide to the 20 hottest restaurants in Manhattan this month. New for June: John McDonald and Jordan Frosolone's Sicilian hotel restaurant Sessanta, modern Korean hot spot Oiji, and the Clocktower, Stephen Starr's joint project with star British chef Jason Atherton. They replace Dirt Candy, Porchlight, and Kiin Thai Eatery.

John McDonald, Steven Eckler and Mercer Street Hospitality along with Chef Jordan Frosolone present Sessanta, a Southern Italian inspired restaurant located in the heart of SoHo on Thompson Street.

Designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, Sessanta takes direction from mid-century Italy, combining the avant-garde aesthetic of Giò Ponti with the glamour of Federico Fellini to transport diners to the post-war heyday of Italian culture.

Check out all the news below, and for reservations, please call: 212 219 8119

The secret charm of this East Village resto isn’t what common words appear in its name but which one doesn’t

We who are meat eaters need not eat meat like mouth-breathing bottom-feeders. We who eat meat seek meat but need not timorously seek it. We are not mice, nor must we be lions, puffed with pride, who try to hide the mouse inside through smoke and char and crass charade and tales of getting laid. Men we are, no more no less, not abashed sinners, and as men we deserve a fitting house to eat our dinners.

Could that happy home be the Bowery Meat Company, the new restaurant from chef Josh Capon and restaurateur John McDonald? Perhaps, though at first the odds appear long. There is the name, for instance. Each of the three words—Bowery, Meat and Company—seem pulled at random from the lexicon of trendy restaurant buzzwords. The location, the soulless glass poop of the Avalon Bowery, had already chewed up and spit out a classy Veselka offshoot and is generally a gleaming blight in the East Village.

Plus, a meat company seems like the very last sort of company we need, especially in that neighborhood where DBGB does brisk trade in saucisson and speck. And when the vegetable is purportedly ascendant, every other recent opening seems to be a steakhouse. It’s a very bad time to be a cow.

You over there, sipping the detox tea. And, you, with the overflowing green salad.

We see you. We commend you, but we also know that soon enough, you're going to break from all that well-intentioned clean eating and start to crave a steak. Badly.

When you decide to butcher your resolutions, cut and run to Bowery Meat Company.

It's the latest schmancy restaurant to join other newish Bowery additions from Keith McNally (Cherche Midi) and Andrew Carmellini (Bar Primi). BMCo is the brainchild of the Lure and Burger & Barrel team, John McDonald and chef Josh Capon, as well as executive chef Paul DiBari. It's not exactly a steakhouse in the traditional sense—they prefer to call it a "meat-centric" restaurant. The design and menu have a slightly more modern bent, but trust—you're going to pay steakhouse prices.

The food is stylized, too; you won't find creamed spinach and its old-timey ilk here. "We don't want you to be exhausted by the time the steak hits the table," Capon says. You're greeted with meat upon arrival, though, in the form of complimentary salumi and soft slices of bacon-and-rosemary focaccia. From there, order the Rockefeller-reminiscent broiled oysters ($18), doused in bubbling-hot parsley-and-Romano-cheese compound butter.

BEST DISH:

Stein’s pick: The Bowery steak at the just opened Bowery Meat Company takes two of the most cliché words on New York menus these days and makes it new. Josh Capon hornswoggled Pat LaFrieda to give him only the deckles—the second smaller portion of a ribeye—which Mr. Capon rolls up and then broils. Deckles have long suffered from overcooking when attached to a rib eye but here the cut finally gets its due. Mr. Capon has innovated something I thought was beyond innovation.

Last fall, John McDonald and Josh Capon unleashed El Toro Blanco on the Village. A week later, Hurricane Sandy hit, knocking the power out of their stylish Mexican follow-up to Lure and B & B. Luckily, there was no damage to the space, and so the team started all over again a week later, restocking the guacamole bar and serving their light take on Mexican fare. El Toro Blanco has since ushered in the margarita-sipping crowds, opened up a patio, and snagged one star from Pete Wells (hitting some high decibels along the way). Here’s McDonald and Capon on their false start, cursed spaces, and why you should look twice before you shut the door on the ETB delivery guy. (Full article Eater NY)